All about nature, conservation and sustainable development

Peace Rock

DO NOT… I repeat DO NOT read this post if you plan to watch The Jungle Book.

I recently watched the Jungle Book and I loved it! Triggered so many childhood memories especially with the song , ‘Bare Necessities’.

Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your worries and your strife
I mean the bare necessities
Old Mother Nature’s recipes
That brings the bare necessities of life

Old Mother Nature DOES bring the bare necessities of life… 😀

So, there was a drought in the jungle. The drought was so bad, a rock that is normally submerged in the river’s waters appeared. This rock is called the Peace Rock. It’s appearance meant that the animals…almost said people…could water at this specific point without hunting each other. So in essence, it was the food chain without arrows…:D. So the wolves (Mowgli’s fam), Buffaloes, Lions, Tiger (Shere Khan), Antelopes, all the animals in the jungle meet here. What struck me is the ability of these animals to have enough sense to have some sort of treaty during drought.

In the world however…

Well… We do have treaties and have made peace over shared resources such as water. For example we have the Nile Basin Initiative which involves 10+ countries (Burundi, DR Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, The Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda). But, the waters in the Nile are currently in abundance. What would happen if the water quantity drastically reduced?

Contrary to the animals in this movie who come to an agreement when resources are scarce, we fight when our resources are scarce. We go to war over shared resources, the most common being oil. Why can’t we sit together and say, ‘okay, you have some, then I’ll have some next time’ or ‘Let’s have half/half’.Some sort of equity. I wonder if we’ll ever realise that there’s no value in fighting and killing each other over resources…